Titanium face inserts in irons ... a thing of the past?

[Moecat]

Seems like now we only have the Callaway FT as the high-priced option for irons with titanium face inserts. But not so long ago there was the Taylormade r7 XD as a less expensive option, the original Ping Rapture (expensive) ... and going even further back to 1999 there was the Mizuno T-Zoid T3 Titanium. Clone and component club companies also got into the mix.

 

But now, I seem to recall Cobra's UFi as being the only major company to recently play around with face insert technology (multi-material, in this particular case, that was supposedly significantly lighter than titanium), while the trend has been to go back to forged/cast steel.

 

Does anybody here have any strong feelings/opinions on the matter? Did you like the Ti face inserts? Do you want to see 'em make a comeback?

[jamo]

I wouldn't say I have strong feelings, but I think we are seeing this partially because the companies have been making their steel faces thinner and thinner, so they haven't needed to use the more expensive titanium to add distance. Add that too really strong lofts and added shaft length, and the titanium face is just not worth the money.

[Shambles]

Ti faces were a selling point when they were marketing the hard face to send the ball farther. These days the sell argument is soft forged and Ti is a hard metal so the two don't necessarily go together.

 

We will probably have some Ti faces for wedges one of these days, possibly even interchangeable Copper, Ti, Soft Forged and Stainless faces for wedges as sharp grooves are being given importance by players and slapping on a fresh face to a wedge you already know intimately should be a good confidence builder before a tournament. If your short game was built on a hard bite, a fresh face would be an insurmountable temptation.

 

 

Shambles

[xxio]

I wouldn't say I have strong feelings, but I think we are seeing this partially because the companies have been making their steel faces thinner and thinner, so they haven't needed to use the more expensive titanium to add distance. Add that too really strong lofts and added shaft length, and the titanium face is just not worth the money.

 

 

I agree, 10 years ago the technology to create really thin steel faces without caving in the grooves was not there. Titanium was the only easily manufactured durable metal for clubfaces. That was the selling point of Titanium- hot thin faces for added distance. Now club design can now make stronger lofts with durable thin steel faces for that. Way back then club design was not advanced enough to move COG as to makes stronger lofted irons have a higher trajectory.

 

Despite all the arguments that irons have not made strides in the past 10-12 years, they have. It is just that the major strides are in the super GI clubs which 80% of golf forum guys do not play and appreciate.

 

Now even the higher end clubs from the JDM market like the Epon 701s and the Nike Machspeed Forged are 2 piece forgings with really thin forged faces. They will feel better than most cast and titanium clubs with the same thin/thickness.

[Addicted2Golf]

The face inserts have become a thing of the past but some OEM's are going multi-material in other ways.

 

Case in point, Mizuno used an 11 gram Titanium insert, forged directly into the outer muscle of the MP-58, to provide for a solid feel while increasing perimeter weighting for stability on off-centre hits (according to their web site).